The ashes of an illegal Chinese immigrant who died in Taiwan 12 years ago were finally taken back to his home in China’s Fujian Province on Friday, following the tenacious efforts of a Miaoli County police officer.
In 2004, the county’s Tongsiao Township (通霄) Police Precinct was tracking down Chinese illegal immigrants working in Taiwan when it found five hidden in a house. Three of them jumped from the roof of the house trying to escape. One of them, aged 33, died from serious head injuries.
However, police were unable to discover his identity before he was buried.
Tongsiao Police section chief Kuo Chao-wen (郭朝文) said that out of consideration for the man and his family, he often visited the man’s grave on Tomb Sweeping Day over the past 12 years.
No one wants a family member to “die in a foreign land without anyone to tend their grave,” he said.
He later identified the man as Ding Xianxiong (丁顯雄).
Through Ding’s cellphone, Kuo got in touch with his relatives, but they said they could not afford to travel to Taiwan.
While burning a stick of incense at Ding’s grave during last year’s Tomb Sweeping Day, Kuo said he prayed that a family member would come to pick Ding up one day so he could return home to his roots.
He was surprised to receive calls from Ding’s friends shortly after informing him that family members wanted to collect his body for burial.
Three of Ding’s relatives traveled to Taiwan earlier this month.
Kuo accompanied Ding’s relatives to the Miaoli District Prosecutors’ Office to get the necessary documents to claim the body, and helped them find a feng shui master to exhume Ding’s body in line with traditional customs.
Ding’s ashes were taken to Pingtang in China’s Fujian Province on Friday.
Kuo said that he had mixed feelings when he saw Ding’s brother, wife and daughter come to Taiwan to pick up Ding’s body.
“It was like seeing off an old friend of many years,” Kuo said.
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